This past weekend, my wife and I attended the funeral of Edgar Allan Poe, the poet, writer and man about town in Baltimore, MD. The burial event was part of the bicentennial celebration of Poe’s birth in 1809. We made a weekend of it and on Saturday visited the Poe House and Museum in one of Baltimore’s “finer” neighborhoods. The tiny house has just enough articles and mementos to keep a Poe fan, like me, satisfied. We had the added bonus of being able to “visit” Mr. Poe’s body. It was actually the special effects creation produced for the next day’s funeral, but it was very “death-like” corpse and eerie being in the home Poe lived in for a short time, looking at his coffin, his stillness, on the second floor parlor of the home.
The next day, we gathered with several hundred other people to witness the procession and funeral service that Poe never had as only a handful of people reportedly attended his funeral in 1849. The crowd spanned the generations and was complete with folks in true Victorian garb to people in what they think is Victorian attire, to people like my wife and I who thought a Poe T-shirt from the Annabel Lee Tavern was appropriate to honor the poet. We all started snapping photos as the horse-drawn casket escorted by the police and the Loch Raven Pipe and Drum Band along with actors portraying Poe’s contemporaries and other famous authors influenced by Poe lead his casket into Westminster Hall where Poe is buried on the corner of Fayette and Greene Streets.
Just prior to the arrival of Poe’s body and procession, I was interviewed by Bob Little of the Baltimore Sun for the article he wrote about the reburial. We were interrupted by security Westminster Hall who asked to leave the cemetery as the 12:30 ticket holders proceeded inside. His article captured the atmosphere well, the odd gathering of fans and “sad occasion,” as described by Jeff Jerome.
What I found was the reburial was more of a celebration of Poe’s short life and his work and his genius. The crowd laughed, it pondered Poe’s influence and was entertained by the actors who portrayed the following figures and eulogized Poe:
Sarah Helen Whitman – Poe wrote several poems about her
The Rev. Rufus Griswold – A contemporary of Poe’s who defamed him after his death, he was hissed by the crowd as he railed against Poe’s literary criticism skills.
Dr. John Moran – who attended to Poe in his final days.
H.B. Latrobe – The editor of the magazine who awarded Poe $50.00 for his story MS. found in a Bottle.
Walt Whitman
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
H.P. Lovecraft
Sir Alfred Hitchcock
The living:
Ellen Datlow, award winning author and editor
Gris Grimly, artist and graphic novelist
John Astin – emceed the proceedings, the actor who for years has portrayed Poe in a one-man show. Well-known to the world as Gomez Addams from the Addams family.
Jeff Jerome
The literary genius of Poe was captured nicely by Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum, who put together the burial weekend in an odd, macabre setting of Poe’s home and the ceremonies at Westminster Hall. I think Poe, who I believe was always seeking Eldorado, his city of gold, would have appreciated all the attention and be humbled by it. Poe is like most of us, not confident in his own talents, but talented none the less and as John Astin pointed out, he never gave up writing throughout his tormented life. As he urges us in Eldorado to continue to ride boldly into the night.
Until next time, Tim
